Bob Dylan: The Ultimate Hysteric?

The Legend Himself

In the 1960s, Bob Dylan was one of the most prolific songwriters of the time.  Through his music, he was able to summarize the thoughts of an extremely rebellious generation.  A generation that lived through important events like the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement.  His persona as a leader of the protest and civil rights movements began with his relationship with Joan Baez and the release of his album "The Times They Are A-Changin".  As I listened to "The Times They Are A-Changin" today, I realized that this song effectively labels him as a hysteric.


Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" set to a backdrop of the civil rights movement.

The Times They Are A-Changin

The song begins with "Come gather round people/Wherever you roam/And admit that the waters/Around you have grown."  Dylan asks his listeners to accept the fact that times are getting tough.  He finishes the stanza with "You better start swimming/Or you'll sink like a stone/For the times they are a-changin."  He tells his listeners that they need to act in some way, but he doesn't tell them how.  This is the ultimate mark of a hysteric.

His hysteric-like pleas become more pronounced later on as he appeals to the government "Don't stand in the doorway/Don't block up the hall/For he who gets hurt/Will be he who has stalled."  Dylan petitions the government to not interfere with the change that is coming, and predicts that the people who don't take part in the change will be the ones that are hurt.  Again, he doesn't really state what kind of change is coming, or how the change will occur.

Joan Baez

The hysterics continue as Dylan proclaims "Your old road is/Rapidly agin'/Please get out of the new one/If you can't lend a hand/".  Dylan again tells people to essentially get out of the way if they're not willing to help with the coming change, but yet again fails to identify the change.  The song ends with the listener being the one to determine exactly what Dylan was going for with his song.

"The Times They Are A-Changin" can be seen as a rallying cry for multiple movements.  I've often heard people say that it's a song that's more true today than ever before.  I don't think it would be quite so true today if it identified exactly what it was after.  Because it's hysteric and because it's somewhat ambiguous, it can be used to proclaim any sort of change and any sort of means for that change.

I think there's a good amount of music that can be considered hysteric.  This is perhaps because of the ambiguity of poetry.  Music can often be interpreted in many ways, and the artists don't always identify exactly what they're after.

Bob Dylan is not the only politically charged artist out there.  What other artists or songs do you think can be considered hysteric?